PawnMaster Blog

How do we have such great team members? You ask. I don’t lollygag around with the hiring process. When you have a tough job to fill, a skill set that is in high demand and with a shortage of qualified people, you have to move quickly to get them secured as a team member and in the Technology world it holds truer now than ever. Don’t let the old adage “you snooze you lose” come back to bite you. Too many times I’ve seen hiring managers hold to their process of finding a specific number of candidates to interview before moving forward. In the start of my career I always held to that. With age comes wisdom. I’m not saying don’t do background tests, drug tests, or reference checks. What I’m saying is if you interview one person and you know it’s the right person, hire them! Get the ball rolling NOW! Make an offer pending all your processes.

NOOOOOOOOOO!!! I have to do another annual employee review?! I would rather be hit in the head by a 95mph fastball while not wearing a helmet. Of course I’m exaggerating, a little, but I knew twenty-five years ago when I began my career as a Manager that I completely despised the traditional annual review for an employee. The traditional reviews are boring, time consuming, uncomfortable, designed for hierarchical environments, lack recognition, and have rigid goals that are set once at the beginning of the year.

Let’s face it, I have said it once and I will say it again. We are in the people business. We talk a lot about our customers. We speak to understanding their needs, what motivates them and how we can best help them. The other side of the coin sees us all operating businesses and having to hire people to help the plan in place succeed. Over the years, I have known many entrepreneurs, VP of Human Resources and countless corporate hiring managers investing thousands of dollars into tools to help make this process more efficient and successful. These tools, in the own way, are effective but I will never discount instinct as a very powerful tool in this process.

I’ve been with Data Age for a year and a half as their Human Resources Director and I have been a part of developing what makes us successful…Our Employees. Getting to this point didn’t happen overnight as I’m sure any H.R. Leader can attest to. There have been a painstaking number of interviews, pre-employment tests, candidate reviews, orientations and training to get to this level but our due diligence has paid off and continues to pay off.